Defenders Want Park Assassin's Name Cleared

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Defenders Want Park Assassin's Name Cleared

Admirers of Kim Jae-kyu, who assassinated President Park Chung Hee 23 years ago Friday, want the government to review whether his action was one of a democratic activist or a mutineer.

A group including two lawyers who defended Mr. Kim is moving to refurbish his reputation and rewrite the history of the incident. It submitted a proposal to a government agency to name him as a democracy activist under a government program set up in August 2000 to "restore the honor" of activists who were, in the past, treated officially as criminals.

The group held a press conference Friday in Seoul. "The Oct. 26 incident was democratic movement that heralded the end of President Park Chung Hee's one-man rule and the Yushin government," said Kang Sin-ok, speaking of the name of the new constitution which was the martial law vehicle used by the former president. Mr. Kang and Cho Jun-hee, another lawyer who tried unsuccessfully to save Kim Jae-kyu from execution, call their group the "Committee to Restore General Kim Jae-kyu's Honor and to Reassess the Oct. 26 Incident."

Mr. Kim, the head of the Korea Central Intelligence Agency when he assassinated President Park, said in court that he fired his weapon "at the heart of Yushin and at the mind of a beast."

The Supreme Court handed down a death sentence in May 1980, saying he was blinded by power and mutinied against the government.

The Yushin ("revitalizing reform") constitution was the law of the land during a seven-year period beginning with President Park's 1972 declaration of martial law. Historians generally agree that the constitution allowed the president to restrict civil liberties and oppress political opponents, although he is also admired - grudgingly or not - for his economic development efforts.

The assassination triggered waves of student demonstrations throughout 1980 as General Chun Doo-hwan took power.

The 22d anniversary of the former president's death was marked at the National Cemetery in Dongjak-dong, Seoul Friday. Family members of the former president attended a memorial service, as did United Liberal Democratic Party President Kim Jong-pil, a relative through marriage and a political associate.



by Ko Dae-hoon

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